Download transit GIS data

People often come to Steven Can Plan looking for GIS shapefiles representing transit, cities, bikeways, roads, etc… On this page I offer for download my own conversion of Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) geographic data.

Bus route shapefiles

I have not verified these for accuracy (that would be a chore!). I obtained these from various sources. I recommend you stick with the GTFS data below. At least with this data, you can make some sort of history of service.

Bus and rail shapefiles

The Chicago Transit Authority doesn’t provide GIS data in shapefile format, but they provide GTFS, the next best thing. Download the CTA’s GTFS data at the Developer Center. The CTA will always have the most current version, which is probably updated no more than four times per year (only when service changes).

I’ve converted their GTFS data to shapefile and KML format for you to download.

length – Numeric, GIS calculated length of the line (for both line directions, roundtrip)

CTA_bus_stops (similar to CTA_all_stops)

Adapted from stops.txt

Fields: (11,779 records)

stop_id – Numeric, the unique stop ID

stop_name – Text, the local name for stop (usually a street intersection or street address)

CTA_bus_train_lines

Same fields as CTA_bus_lines except adds train lines.

145 records

CTA_train_lines

Adapted from shapes.txt and routes.txt

Same fields as CTA_bus_lines except only train lines.

8 records

CTA_train_stations (cta_train_stations.shp)

Adapted from stops.txt

Fields: (144 features)

stop_name – Text, the local name for train station

CTA_train_stations (cta_train_stations_stopid.shp)

Adapted from stops.txt

Fields: (433 features)

stop_id – Numeric, the unique stop ID (Same as in CTA_all_stops)

stop_name – Text, the local name for the train station

Note: There are 3 records per station and other seeming inconsistencies. For example, there are two distinct Roosevelt stations (one elevated, one subway), but a third Roosevelt record exists. I have not compared this third station’s stop_id with any other table to see how it’s used in the full dataset.

Disclaimer

All data that you can download from any stevevance.net property is at your own risk. Downloaders agree to indemnify and hold harmless Steven Vance and its contributors against loss or threatened loss or expense by reason of the liability or potential liability of the downloader for or arising out of any claims for damages.

If you encounter an error in my data, please email me. If you an encounter an error with CTA data you’ve downloaded, you can alert me to the error, but you should email the CTA.